From this session you will learn how to enrich and extend your Microsoft environment and see just how easily IBM integrates with what you have. You'll also come away with a deeper understanding of the latest in social and mobile technologies, and how organizations like Cemex, TD Bank and Lowes are working smarter and driving innovation.

From this session you will learn how to enrich and extend your Microsoft environment and see just how easily IBM integrates with what you have. You'll also come away with a deeper understanding of the latest in social and mobile technologies, and how organizations like Cemex, TD Bank and Lowes are working smarter and driving innovation.

Attendees will learn how Streams works, how to administer Streams as well as learn how to develop Streams applications using Streams Processing Language (SPL). Among them you will learn how to implement data filtering and transformation, database access and text mining applications.

From this session you will learn how to enrich and extend your Microsoft environment and see just how easily IBM integrates with what you have. You'll also come away with a deeper understanding of the latest in social and mobile technologies, and how organizations like Cemex, TD Bank and Lowes are working smarter and driving innovation.

IBM Flex System™ is a new category of computing that integrates multiple server architectures, chassis, storage, networking and system management capabilities into a single, integrated system that is easy to deploy and manage.

This event is designed for Business Partners, ISVs, MSPs looking to maximize their relationship with IBM. Learn best practices, meet local contacts and establish next steps as you partner and grow with IBM. You will learn through IBM Roadmaps. These sessions can be held in a one-on-one environment or in groups. Contact us to schedule a private session.

From this session you will learn how to enrich and extend your Microsoft environment and see just how easily IBM integrates with what you have. You'll also come away with a deeper understanding of the latest in social and mobile technologies, and how organizations like Cemex, TD Bank and Lowes are working smarter and driving innovation.

The DB2 10 Bootcamp introduces features and enhancements in the latest version of DB2 for Linux®, UNIX® and Windows®. Detailed presentations and hands-on labs are included where attendees will gain in-depth knowledge of exciting new features.

This event is designed for Business Partners, ISVs, MSPs looking to maximize their relationship with IBM. Learn best practices, meet local contacts and establish next steps as you partner and grow with IBM. You will learn through IBM Roadmaps. These sessions can be held in a one-on-one environment or in groups. Contact us to schedule a private session.

IBM Flex System™ is a new category of computing that integrates multiple server architectures, chassis, storage, networking and system management capabilities into a single, integrated system that is easy to deploy and manage.

Guidance on how to use Co-Marketing tools to optimize Mid-Market campaigns

Direct links to Co-Marketing assets, incentives and enablement

Access to the latest Sales Plays and hot new Mid-Market solutions

RTE Marketing CampaignsThis resource provides you with over 130 "ready to execute" campaign materials for Software Group, Systems Technology Group, and Midmarket that are easy to customize. These assets include:

Join IBM executives, Business Partners, and industry analysts at the Pulse 2013 conference. Spread out over four days, 500+ sessions have been built around four key streams:

Cloud and IT Optimization

Smarter Physical Infrastructure

The Mobile Enterprise

Security Intelligence

For IBM Business Partners, here are some key activities to keep in mind during the Pulse 2013 conference:

Hands-on Labs and Certification Testing

IBM certifications are a way for skilled IT professionals to demonstrate expertise and validate skills in IBM technology and solutions. Tests are available on a variety of IBM Software with the first Tivoli brand certification test offered free for all conference attendees. Additional Software Group brand tests and subsequent Tivoli tests are offered at a 50% discount.

Business Partner Summit - March 3

This no-charge exclusive event offers concurrent Business Partner Forums for Tivoli and Security Systems Business Partners on Sunday March 3rd. Don't forget to stick around for the Meet the Experts Networking Event, to mingle and converse with IBM Subject Matter Experts.

IBM Business Partner Cafe

A great place to meet other Business Partners and the IBM team for one-on-one meetings and discussions. Learn from IBM Subject Matter Experts about the latest news on the IBM portfolio, Business Partner programs, offerings, and resources.

Did you attend the first quarter kickoff for IBM Business Analytics? This call was targeted for IBM Business Partners and covered the latest news and developments around Business Analytics. Speakers discussed:

strategic market outlook

new products and offerings

new Business Partner programs

events, and

how Business Partners can continue to grow business and profitability

If you missed the session, the replay and slide deck are available online - click here.

Together with our local Information Management (IM) team, the Toronto IBM Innovation Center (IIC) hosts several technical IM bootcamps every quarter. These 3-, or 4-day technical workshops offer free training for IBM Business Partners that include detailed lectures and hands-on lab training on a variety of products and subjects, including:

DB2 software

Informix software

InfoSphere software

Big Data and Warehouse

SAP

Who can attend?You must be a current IBM Business Partner to attend. Additional pre-requisites and product knowledge may be required for some courses.

What is included?

3- or 4-day training, including lectures and hands-on labs

free IBM Technical Mastery Test or Certification Exam at the end of the workshop (offers and conditions may vary for each bootcamp)

Get ready for Lotusphere Connect. This year, IBM has combined the annual Lotusphere and Connect conferences into one event from January 27 through January 31 in Orlando Florida. This can't-miss event brings you the latest information in IBM Social Business.

IBM Business Partners, don't miss out on this full-day event prepared for you! The Business Partner Development Day consists of general and breakout sessions designed to teach you how to expand your social business practice by leveraging IBM products and solutions.

IBM Software Business Partner Virtual Summit - January 28 @ 11AM

Don't miss the IBM Software Business Partner Virtual Summit, which will be hosted live at the IBM Business Partner Cafe. Workstations will be available to access the Virtual Summit expert pavilions and on-demand sessions.

Business Partner Cafe & Resource Center

Meet with IBM subject matter experts to discuss programs, offerings, and benefits to best align your business priorities.Get information about important IBM Business Partner topics and resources, such as:

It's 2013 and the start of a great new year. What are your new year's resolutions? Here at the IIC Toronto, we resolve to continue providing our Business Partners with the resources, training, and events to best assist you with your business and to build on our existing relationship with you.

We've got a busy year ahead with events and training built around the 2012 Tech Trends Report finding that the key areas of interest are analytics, mobile, cloud, and social. We'd love to hear from you, our Business Partners, on topics that are of particular interest to you, or if you are looking for more in-depth coverage of particular topics. Tell us how we can help you succeed in 2013!

Upcoming Events for IBM Business Partners

January 15Webinar: Ready for IBM Security IntelligenceSpeaker:
Tom Turner, Vice President, WW Marketing, IBM Security Systems, and
speakers from IBM Business Partners, will offer key insights into this
program, and outline the benefits for you and your clients.

The annual IBM Tech Trends study results have been published by developerWorks and the IBM Center for Applied Insights. Last year, the results showed that analytics, mobile, cloud, and social were the key technologies being developed. The 2012 results represent responses from over 1,200 IT decision-makers and 700 academics (both educators and students).

About IBM developerWorksibm.com/developerworksIBM developerWorks is an industry-leading, award-winning technical resource and professional network for the developer community. Four million IT professionals, faculty and students across 195 countries use developerWorks each month to learn about advances in IT and open standards, develop skills, solve problems and work collaboratively with experts and peers.

About the IBM Center for Applied Insightsibm.com/smarter/cai/valueThe IBM Center for Applied Insights introduces new ways of thinking, working and leading. Through evidence-based research, the Center arms leaders with pragmatic guidance and the case for change.

Are you an IBM Business Partner focused on Business Analytics? Does your portfolio include Risk Analytics tools to help your customers make risk-driven business decisions?

Sign up for this webinar that examines examples of risk-driven business decisions, why they are necessary, and learn about how IBM solutions, Algorithmics and OpenPages, can be adopted to improve how you meet your clients' needs.

The Beacon Awards recognize the best solutions and services IBM Business Partners have delivered to clients around the world. With over 30 different awards to recognize achievement, this annual award offers IBM Business Partners the opportunity to get recognized.

Faced with a varietyof data you can't analyze? Is the velocity of your data overwhelming and you need decisions in real-time? Do you have an issue with the volume of data that needs to be analyzed? If any of these issues apply then you have a Big Data challenge and are missing opportunities!

With better big data, you can turn your data into trusted information that can be harvested to find new insight and to answer questions that in the past were beyond reach. Due to the popularity of this topic, we've scheduled our speakers to host this event in Montreal on November 29th in addition to our original event scheduled in Toronto for November 27th.

Come hear our industry experts share their real-world experiences to help you learn how to take control of your ever-growing supply of data and turn it into an enterprise source of knowledge.

November seems to be the month for Big Data here in the Markham office. There are several events targeted towards IBM Business Partners coming up in the next month. If you haven't already heard about them, here they are:

Big Data Fundamentals BootcampNovember 13 - 16, 2012

This bootcamp covers Big Data fundamentals, with focus on InfoSphere BigInsights. Learn how a Hadoop-based solution complements existing IM products and how BigInsights can be integrated into an existing enterprise environment. This session will also touch on the basics and fundamentals of other IM Big Data portfolio products such as InfoSphere Streams and Vivisimo Velocity.

Find out:

What is Big Data to IBM

How to use Hadoop technology and related tools that are provided by InfoSphere BigInsights

How to process streaming data to do real-time analysis and decision-making

Participate in an exclusive Big Data Developer Day hosted by the IBM Big Data Development team. Experience IBM’s enterprise-class big data platform that allows you to address the full spectrum of big data business challenges. The morning will include interactive discussions and live demonstrations of big data for social media and log analytics, then get hands on with Hadoop scripting and text analytics with guidance from development experts. This is a unique opportunity to develop skills and learn about exciting technologies and techniques that you can immediately take back to your organization.

In today’s world there is an ever increasing amount of data. Estimates point to data growing at 50 percent a year, or more than doubling every two years. It’s not just more streams of data, but entirely new ones. Businesses and government agencies are confronted with three dimensions of this Big Data challenge—volume, variety, and velocity. Of course, Big Data is more than a challenge; it is an opportunity to find insight in new and emerging types of data, to make your business more agile.

According to IDC, the market for Big Data technology and services will reach $16.9 billion by 2015, up from $3.2 billion in 2010. That is a 40 percent-a-year growth rate — about seven times the estimated growth rate for the overall information technology and communications business. Join us at the Toronto IBM Innovation Center to learn about the IBM Big Data solution portfolio and how you can take advantage of the great market opportunity highlighted by this IDC report. Learn how you can grow your business by integrating your solutions with IBM Big Data platforms and by creating practices around IBM Big Data solutions.

In a series of fact-filled presentations and demonstrations at this event, you will:

On October 9th, IBM announced the newest member of the PureSystems family. The PureData system encompasses the three core attributes of all PureSystems - built-in expertise, integration by design, and simplified experience - with a focus on big data. With today's focus on efficient management and speedy analysis of the vast quantities of data collected each minute, this new system offers three workload-optimized models:

"A social business is engaged - Deeply connecting people to be involved in productive, efficient ways.

A social business is transparent - Providing line of sight across traditional boundaries and better aligning actions to needs.

A social business is nimble - Speeding up business with insight to anticipate and address evolving opportunities."

The IBM Social Business solution portfolio is broad, and includes: Connections 4, Connections Suite, Intranet Experience Suite; mobile, integration, Social Content, Analytics. IBM is now offering the "Ready for Social Business" mark for qualified Business Partners. This new program enables Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and System Integrators (SIs) to integrate their solutions with IBM's Social Business platform.

To learn more about IBM Social Business, hear from IBM executives and Business Partners working with social business solutions and network at the upcoming Partnering with IBM Social Business event being held at the Toronto IIC.

Last week I reminded you of the IBM InterConnect 2012 event at Resort World Sentosa in Singapore which focuses on business-IT hot topics. This week, I'd like to bring to your attention the upcoming IBM Information on Demand 2012 conference.

This 5-day conference will cover four key forums, include general and keynote speakers, opportunities to network with IBM executives and Business Partners, and experience products, services, and solutions.

Participate in technical sessions at the IBM Information Management Forum

Business Partners and customers - are you attending IBM InterConnect 2012? Only a few weeks left to register to attend this meeting place for business and IT leaders!

IBM InterConnect 2012

October 9 - 11, 2012 | Resort World Sentosa, Singapore

Hot Topic Sessions

A showcase of successful strategies that leverage the breadth and depth of IBM software and systems.

Exchange Sessions

These facilitated sessions offer attendees the opportunity to dig deeper into the strategies discussed in the Hot Topic Sessions and learn how to apply lessons learned. Come out of these topics with a plan to share what you've learned with peers from your organization.

Solution CenterLocated central to the entire event, this space is set up to foster topic discussions and offer interactive demonstrations for IBM Business Partners, Subject Matter Experts, customers, and IBM executives.

What is Big Data? It's one of those keywords that has become increasingly prevalent as our use and consumption of information has become more demanding and all-encompassing. In an attempt to keep up to date on the ever changing areas of technology, I've been reading up on the topic. Here's a summary of what I've found to be the basics.

"The term Big Data applies to information that can't be processed or analyzed using traditional processes or tools."

IBM defines Big Data by three characteristics: volume, variety, and velocity. What does this mean?

Volume: The sheer amount of information collected on a daily or even hourly basis by organizations is massive, reaching to petabytes. Imagine having to analyze and sift through for nuggets of relevant data.

Variety: Data is being collected from a whole range of sources, from sensors to smart devices, emails to documents, social media forums, etc. Combined, these data generators bring in both traditional and raw data that may or may not be structured.

Velocity: How fast is the data flowing? It's not enough to know how quickly it is being produced, stored, analyzed, but we also need to know how quickly the data will become obsolete.

As I continue to read up on the topic, I'll share my insights and discoveries with you. One of my key go-to sources is a fellow IBM-er, Lennart Frantzell, who writes for the Silicon Valley IBM Innovation Center blog. Also, keep up-to-date on IBM's Big Data products and strategy by watching the videos at IBM Big Data on Youtube.

Last week, the IBM Innovation Center - Canada ran the pilot for the PureSystems Certification Preparation Workshop. This 3-day workshop focuses on the PureFlex System and includes sales and technical training on the first two days followed by testing on the final day. Due to the popularity of the pilot event, we had to increase the
workshop size! A word from Steve Powell, Course Developer for IBM and the instructor for the pilot workshop:

"It was great to visit Toronto and meet so many dedicated Partners. We
had a lot of fun getting to grips with the certification test
requirements and I'm pleased to say many of our Partners are now
certified!"

For those of you who were unable to join us last week,
we are holding 4 additional workshops in the coming weeks in Toronto,
Montreal, Calgary, and Vancouver. We look forward to having many of you attend the upcoming sessions.
Please do note that as this is a review course, attendees are expected
to be familiar with PureSystems and should study the materials in
advance and come prepared with any questions.

If you missed out on this workshop, visit the IBM Innovation Center website at http://ibm.biz/Bdx4sN to register online and find out about our other events.

The Global Network of IBM Innovation Centers has been hosting the IBM PureSystems Business Partner Day events worldwide. Here in Canada, we held these informative networking events in Toronto and Montreal and will be bringing the event out to our western Business Partners as well. With a twist. We've made this a morning event and added a more technical workshop component in the afternoon. Check out the agenda for the day. I've included it below with links to register online. Please register separately for the morning and afternoon sessions.

We'd like to invite all of our IBM Business Partners that operate in the western provinces and territories to attend the PureSystems Business Partner Day in Calgary on September 6th.

AgendaKeynote & Breakout Sessions (9:00 AM – 12:30 PM MST)Presenters:

Luis H. Rodriguez – Director, IBM Innovation Centers

Todd Austin – Worldwide Channel Marketing Leader, IBM PureSystems

Audience: C-level, Line of Business, Sales & MarketingAt the keynote, you will hear about IBM’s new family of expert integrated systems and how the PureSystems offerings meet the increasing demands of your business and technology challenges.Breakout sessions will provide value, pricing and incentives, and specific details on next steps.

Register now for the keynote and breakout session: http://ibm.biz/BdxXx2

Workshop (1:30 PM – 3:30 PM MST)Presenter: IBM Technology Consultant, IBM PureSystems ExpertAudience: IT ProfessionalsThe workshop will instruct you on the tools and techniques used to create scripts for cloud deployment on the IBM PureApplication and PureFlex systems. This workshop will cover:

With all that IBM has to offer, how does one find their way from point A to point B?

To help you navigate your route, IBM has created a series of roadmaps that should help you along the way. Whether you're a Business Partner, Academic, IT professional, or entrepreneur, these roadmaps offer a step-by-step guide with an overview, resources to learn more, and actions that will help you succeed.

Roadmaps for Business Partners

Industry roadmaps

Cross-industry roadmaps

Roadmaps for academia

IBM roadmap for academia - Faculty

IBM roadmap for academia - Students

Roadmaps for IT professionalsRoadmaps for entrepreneurs

Visit the IBM Roadmaps website (http://ibm.biz/BdxrUX) to learn more about the different routes you can take.

"Ready for..." are technical validations offered by IBM to its Business Partners. Achieving "Ready for ..." status shows customers that your solution meets or exceeds IBM compatibility criteria with one or more of the IBM products in that category. There are several "Ready for..." validations available that your company can qualify for and recently, IBM announced the addition of Ready for IBM Social Business to the line-up. As social business becomes increasingly vital to organizations, this new offering builds on and combines the previous Ready for IBM Lotus and Ready for IBM WebSphere Portal validations. Read a guest blog about Ready for IBM Social Business from the perspective of one of our IBM Business Partners: www.ibm.com/connections/blogs/socialbusiness/tags/ready_for_social_business?lang=en_us

Each validation has its own steps to complete the process to achieve
"Ready for..." status, and once you've successfully completed the
validation and marketing criteria, you can display the "Ready for..."
mark in the packaging and marketing materials of your qualified
offerings. Just remember to follow the guidelines when you download and
use your "Ready for IBM..." mark. For more information on the usage
guidelines, visit http://ibm.biz/BdxrXC.

IBM Business Partners come from many different backgrounds, and each of you shares a vital relationship with IBM, so we like to do our best to invest in your success.

Registering to become an IBM Business Partner is easy. Simply visit ibm.com/partnerworld/join
to sign up. At the Member level, we provide resources for five
categories: Marketing, Selling, Technical, Training, and Collaboration.
Each is designed to support your needs. By building your company's
skills, revenue, client references and customer satisfaction, you can
move up to the Advanced and Premier levels where you will receive
additional benefits and resources. Once you're an IBM Business Partner, you can begin using one of our Business Partner marks to identify your relationship.

Build and maintain your PartnerWorld Profiling System (PPS) profile to ensure you are receiving the right benefits and resources. Keep your profile up-to-date so that potential customers, IBM sales teams and other Business Partners can see your relationship with IBM and see what skills and capabilities you offer. Just remember to opt in on your PPS profile to allow others to pull up your company on the Business Partner Locator tool. (Have you looked your company up to see what your profile looks like to others?)

Got a solution you're proud of and are ready to market? Submit your solution on the Global Solutions Directory so that others can read about it.

There are a lot of resources available to IBM Business Partners on PartnerWorld, so don't miss out.

Back in April, IBM announced the new family of expert integrated systems called IBM PureSystems. Since then, this revolutionary new product has been top-of-mind for IBMers and our Business Partners.

To quickly catch you up, these systems incorporate hardware, software, and applications with built-in expertise, integration by design, and offers a simplified IT experience. The current offerings include:

PureFlex System: an infrastructure system that combines computing, storage, networking, virtualization and management and is expert at sensing and anticipating resource needs.

PureApplication System: a platform system built for cloud and offers a simple and efficient experience putting you in control.

The IBM Innovation Centers (IICs) have been hosting PureSystems Business Partner Day events worldwide to get our Business Partners up-to-date on IBM PureSystems. Here in Canada, we have already hosted events in Toronto and Montreal. Both events were a success with over 180 Business Partners in attendance, and experts on IBM PureSystems speaking about the product and networking with independent software vendors, managed service providers, systems integrators, and resellers. We at the IIC Canada are working hard to get our Western Business Partners out to an event as well, so keep an eye out for a communication from the IIC.

Keep reading as we get our event plans lined up for the fall and start blogging about what you can expect on the agenda here at the IIC Canada. Check out what events are coming up at the IBM Innovation Centers around the globe: http://ibm.biz/Bdx4sN

Hi and welcome to the first of many posts from the IBM Innovation
Center (IIC) Canada! While most posts will come from me (Jeanette), I'd
like to start by introducing our team, as you can expect posts from all
of us.

IIC Canada TeamLocated
at the IBM Canada headquarters, our team is part of a growing network
of Innovation Centers worldwide. Our little trio handles technical
enablements, workshops, and events across Canada.

Lila Adamec, Manager, IBM Innovation CenterOur fearless leader, Lila, has over 20years
of experience in the technology industry and is a long-time IBMer.
Lila drives the Canadian Strategy and oversees all aspects of the center
operations and resources. She works with IBM Business Partners and IBM
executives in understanding and leveraging the capabilities of the
Global Network of IIC's worldwide to create a successful partnership.

Grace Barker, Planning & Deliver Manager, IBM Innovation CenterAn
experienced IBMer, Grace has worked at IBM for 17 years. She handles
the business development and execution of IIC activities to support our
roadmaps.

Jeanette Lee, Event Coordinator, IBM Innovation CenterNewest
member to the IIC team, I plan and execute events held in the center
and work with IBM Business Partners to help them maximize the resources
available.

Blog GoalsOur team is dedicated to
working with and connecting Business Partners, Independent Software
Vendors, developers, academics, and entrepreneurs on how to build,
market, sell, and deliver solutions. We've joined the world of blogging
to make sure information and resources are available to you and build
awareness of events that we will be hosting. On a weekly basis, we will
post about relevant topics to keep you informed on what is happening in
the IIC, with IBM, and with IBM Business Partners. Some upcoming
topics...PureSystems, working in the cloud, Business Analytics, Social
Collaboration, upcoming event highlights and recaps and many more.

Follow UsFollow this blog! Help us stay interesting and relevant by suggesting topics, asking questions, or posting comments.